Impact of Agripreneurial Competency on the Performance of Agro-Based SMES in Nigeria and the Moderating Influence of the Business Environment
[Thesis]
David, Ali Michael
Winston, Bruce
Regent University
2020
160 p.
Ph.D.
Regent University
2020
A robust body of knowledge has grown around entrepreneurs' need for superior skills and personality characteristics, the ones that enable them to compete and survive effectively. This study, controlled for gender, owner-manager or manager, firm size, and firm age, investigated the impact of agripreneurial competency on the financial and non-financial performance of agro-based SMEs in Nigeria and the moderating influence of the business environment. This study examined two research questions. The first was what impact do entrepreneurial competencies have on the performance of agro-based SMEs in Nigeria? The second was: to what extent will dynamism and competitiveness from the business environment moderate the relationship between agripreneurial competencies and the performance of agro-based SMEs in Nigeria? The study adopted the mix-method empirical study to survey 312, randomly selected respondents. The following three survey instruments were deployed to collect field data: AGRIPRECOM scale by Man, Lau, and Chan (2002) to measure agripreneurial competence, PERF scale as developed by Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1989) to measure performance, and BUSENV scale by Jansen, Van den Bosch and Volberda (2006) to measure the business environment. A hierarchical regression combined with a thematic analysis was adopted to examine the impact of agripreneurial competency (independent variable) on the performance of agro-based SMEs in Nigeria (dependent variable) and the influence of the moderating variable of the business environment. The results revealed that agripreneurial competency dimensions of relationships, innovativeness, analytical, opportunity, strategic, human, operational, commitment, personal strength, and learning competencies had a significant impact on SMEs' financial and non-financial performance. The study also revealed a partial moderating influence of the business environment dimension of dynamism on the non-financial performance of agro-based SMEs.